biography

DM Ventures is a hospitality consulting and investment firm that empowers New Guard Restaurateurs through the use of data-analytics, competitive strategy, industry collaborations, and disruptive innovation.Mogavero started and grew Avero, the leading restaurant analytics software company to 10,000 restaurants across 70 countries aggregating $24 billion. Avero was recently included in Fast Company’s Top 10 Restaurant Innovations of the past century.

Named “Restaurant Revolutionary” and “Innovator of the Year” by Cornell University’s Hotel School, Mogavero is leading a movement of New Guard Restaurateurs to dynamically transform the way America eats. From Fortune 500 companies to emerging restaurant brands, Mogavero has had the honor of inspiring hospitality professionals around the globe as well as educating top restaurant leaders through his annual Underground Culinary Tour, which uses New York City as a restaurant laboratory to showcase emerging trends. Described by Bloomberg as the “Data-Dining King”, Mogavero has continued to attract international attention as a sought after speaker and thought leader in the hospitality and tech industries.

After graduating summa cum laude from La Salle University, Mogavero earned his MBA from Harvard University. Before becoming a restaurant-CFO-turned-entrepreneur Mogavero worked on Wall Street as an investment banker at Dillon, Read & Co.

A passionate oenophile and coffee fanatic, in 2008 Damian passed the WSET Level 3 Advanced Certificate with distinction in Wine and Spirits in addition to the first part of his Barista certification through Counter Culture.

RECENT Press

"The message to restaurateurs is simple: Ignore data at your peril, said Mr. Mogavero, the author of a recent book, “The Underground Culinary Tour,”about how data has transformed the restaurant industry."

"Damian Mogavero, a dining-industry consultant, has analyzed the data behind thousands of restaurants—which dishes get ordered, which servers bring in the highest bills, and even what the weather’s like—and found that these metrics can help inform the decisions and practices of restaurateurs. Ultimately, Mogavero believes that the data he collects is really a way to learn how to make customers happy. Mogavero recently wrote a book about analytics called The Underground Culinary Tour—which is also the name of an annual insider retreat he runs, in which he leads restaurateurs from around the nation to what he considers the most innovative restaurants in New York City, with 15 stops in 24 hours."

“The restaurant industry, there’s a lot of artistry in it. And one of the things that I noticed when I was in the restaurant industry is I would ask very simple questions to my chefs and managers, you know, ‘Why do your food costs go up? Why do your labor costs go up? Who are your top and bottom servers?’” said Mogavero, founder of the software company Avero. “And I would get blank stares and wrong answers.”

The restaurant industry isn't a likely partner for big data, even though it generates a ton. Historically, decisions about how things are run are fueled by the chef's intuition. But where some saw an odd coupling, Damian Mogavero saw opportunity.